Professor Parker's research interests include exploring the influence of macro-level constructs on urban violence, particularly labor markets, racial segregation, immigration and concentrated disadvantage. Much of her recent work has incorporated longitudinal models to examine how changes in the local urban economy differentially influence race-specific homicide rates over time and detailed examinations of the American crime drop. Research on these topics has been published in Criminology, American Journal of Public Health, Social Science Research, Social Forces, Urban Affairs Review, Feminist Criminology, Justice Quarterly and Journal of Quantitative Criminology. Her book, Unequal Crime Decline (2008 NYU Press), documents the role of labor market segmentation on the racial disparities in violence over time.